Hello DrEdwardHudgins,
It all comes down to intent; doesn't it?
Fun, light.. good article. :)
I don't know if Rand would approve of the selfie, for any reason, but I'm sure she would approve of the entrepreneurial effort that created the selfie-stick and the cameras with lens-side viewfinders, etc.
Respectfully,
O.A.

She would like selfie sticks only when there is an objectively defensible reason to use one?

When Obama takes pictures of himself, are they selfies or altruies? :-)

I'd say, no. The whole selfie / record everything movement is a vain attempt to prove to everyone else that you are living the best life, but they go so far out of their way to capture it on camera that they are in fact not living the best life.

So Rand wouldn't approve of living to prove to others that you are living.

With a selfie stick received as a birthday gift my son took a selfie with everyone including the photographer in March. It is an awesome picture all smiles and grins. I think Ayn Rand would recognize the value the creator of selfie stick offers and also of a spontaneous photographic moment and the many other uses.

Definitely no.
When I was a photographer and a member of the Blank Blank Society, (We weren't allowed to use Her name) and attended a lecture by A.R., Branden, et.al. I was asked not to photograph them. There I was with my thousands of dollars worth of professional equipment, ready to use my considerable talent for no charge and being refused. It was one of the ways that I learned that no matter how great the skills available, they are worthless if no one wishes to avail themselves of them.

Besides, Dr. Ed., even though she was an icon, she also had a touch of vanity.

Fame seems to have been a subject Rand was sore about. I don't blame her; the news media were as biased during her lifetime as they are today. She was certainly smart to shun them except at the rare times that she had her own reasons for talking to them.

More broadly, current fads such as taking selfies and posting them on Facebook are a direct contradiction of most young people's desires for privacy and "safe spaces." I expect that there are going to be dozens, maybe hundreds, more examples of the Streisand Effect (and more tragic analogs such as people getting themselves stalked and raped) before the average person sees the need to secure his data and stop posting it where strangers can get hold of it.

That's like asking whether she approved of self-timers on the twin-lens reflex cameras of her day. Such devices are neither good nor bad; it depends on how you use them and to what end.